Ennio Morricone
Ennio Morricone 60
Universal Music

A long, epic and successful musical story, cut short. The maestro of film music, the Italian Ennio Morricone (88), is out with a new album named 60. Ennio is celebrating a career that has span over 60 years, and what a career! In the 1940s, he played trumpet in jazz bands, before he started to work for RCA as a studio arranger, and in 1955 came his first written music. In the 1960s, he hooked up with the Italian film director Sergio Leone, and they became a dynamic duo. Ennio with his special composed western music (inclusive electric guitars), and Sergio with his rough directing style made three movies starring "the man with no name". Well, the actor's name was Clint Eastwood, and the rest is a successful story. I guess most of you once or twice have heard the main theme from the film The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. Later came the film Once Upon a Time in the West with Henry Fonda and Charles Bronson in the leading roles, with Ennio as the composer of the fantastic soundtrack, with Sergio Leone still directing.

Morricone has composed music to films directed by Don Siegel, Barry Levinson, Bernardo Bertolucci, Giuseppe Tornatore, Mike Nichols, Roman Polanski, Brian De Palma, Warren Beatty, Oliver Stone and Quentin Tarantino and a big number of other film directors from different countries through several decades. In 2016, Ennio won Oscar for best film music for The Hatful Eight (2015). He had only one honourable Oscar from before, but a total of six nominations for best film music. He should have won them all!

Ennio has a wide angel of inspiration creating music. He might just fool you all around with the finest pop tune, before you in the next moment hear classical music like "Gabriel's Obo" from the The Mission. Many artists have recorded his music. Some of his instrumental compositions has got lyrics and vocals added over the years, and have been sung by artist like Paul Anka, Andrea Bocelli, Dulce Pontes and several more. Ennio Morricone has sold over 70 million records wordwide!

There is so much more to say about this man, his music and his 60 years as one of the most versatile, experimental and influential composers of all time, but I will conclude that you all should have at least one album of this man's music in your collection. This new album, Ennio Morricone 60, might be a very good start. The man has selected some of his finest moments and compositions. The music is played by the Czech National Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Ennio himself. Through this new album, you will truly get into the magical musical world of the maestro. I will not pick one track over another as these are all classics. Enjoy!

Copyright © 2016 Hans Olav Kirknes